The Color Orange is an organization that was established in 2008 by Jens Galschiøt, to highlight the violations of the human rights in China on the occasion of the Olympic Games in Beijing August 2008.
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Appeal
The color orange was used as a symbol used to protest against the human rights violations in China. The main idea of The Color Orange was to give participants, visitors, and the Chinese population a possibility to send a signal to the world that something is wrong, by using an orange hat, camera bag, tie, pen, paper, dress, suit, bag, etc. The Color Orange organization described it as this: "The strict censorship can ban the use of obvious symbols of human rights, but the use of The Color Orange cannot be banned."
The Pillar of Shame painted Orange
The Color Orange organization decided to paint the Pillar of Shame which has become a renowned memorial of the Tiananmen Massacre orange, to protest against the violation of human rights in China.
The Danish artist Jens Galschiot and his staff took a flight to Hong Kong in order to paint the Pillar of Shame orange. As the airplane landed April 26 he was denied access to Hong Kong in the airport.
The Chinese Democracy Movement decided to paint the sculpture orange by themselves to put focus on Human Rights in China and show support to the world wide project TheColorOrange about using Orange in connection to the Olympic Games 2008 to boost the awareness about the Human Rights violations in China. The painting of the sculpture was made by students from the University of Hong Kong and by Chinese members of the Democracy Movement which has its base in Hong Kong. Amongst others the Movement counts the chairman of the Hong Kong Trade Union, Cheuk Yan Lee, the poet Szeto Wah, the Human Rights lawyer Albert Ho, the activist and artist Longhair, and several Hong Kong MPs.
Danish celebrities support The Color Orange
In Denmark during the Chinese Olympics, The Color Orange launched a dressing up of sculptures with orange.
China’s OG website hacked
The Color Orange received an anonymous telephone call that hackers have changed the headlines of the official Chinese Olympic website into orange, the signal color of the human rights abuses in China.
Usain Bolt won the 100 meter sprint wearing an orange bracelet
During his 100 metres sprint Usain Bolt was wearing an orange bracelet. Jens Galschiøt states that he did not know Usain Bolt’s motives for wearing the bracelet. At the 2008 Olympic Games the orange color was said by The Color Orange Group to have been meant to protest human rights issues in China.